The Dispensable Leader

Sometimes ‘leading with our life’ is an oxymoron…

We think one thing and do another.

Our intentions are good but our execution is an exercise in futility.

We get comfortable with familiarity and forget that lead is a verb.

And sometimes, ever so subtly, a sense of being indispensable creeps in. Then BAM!

Hello dispensable.

One of the most common situations whereby this lesson is learned (often the hard way) is in the area of employment.

Reflecting on my decades of full-time career, segueing from viewing myself as indispensable to dispensable was a necessary part of leading with my life. That one shift was, well…indispensable!

With one employer, the firm merged with another. My boss, the now-former owner, urged me to stay and enjoy ‘light duty’ as the now-corporate home office whittled away my job duties and position. Enter ‘dispensable’ mindset. Nothing seemed less appealing than stuffing envelopes and remaining unchallenged with no outlet for my skills and capabilities.

While employed with another community business, I was tasked with some specific duties while assisting three upper executives. Having come into their employ during a vulnerable time in my life, the job was an answer to prayer. Some months later, however, it became evident that I did not belong in the atmosphere the organization’s leadership was bent on creating…or allowing. I chose dispensable.

Another employer in the medical community unexpectedly dispensed with my boss one Spring day. Without an executive to execute for, I was immediately thrust from feeling indispensable to dispensable. Four ‘fraught with drama’ months later, I moved on.

Finally, there was nothing quite like two bouts of breast cancer to recalibrate any remaining tendencies toward thinking I was indispensable. I ‘woke up and smelled the coffee’ one day when the realization hit that I was not indispensable. I was in a job I had once loved. All the previous years of experience and honing my skills had come together in the position I now held. The work and relationships had introduced new challenges and learning curves. Growth was occurring. But, an unsettling was occurring simultaneously as the cancer journeys four years apart and an unstable economy wreaked their havoc. In addition, management and Board decisions helped remove the ‘in’ from indispensable. That’s when I adopted the nickname Gumby – the little flexible rubber green guy.

From the above instances – and many more, I gleaned some indispensable leading with your life keys:

Change happens. It was not in my purview to tell my boss he could not merge his company. He made a decision that changed the course of the entire business…that changed my position…that changed my mind about my role there. It then became my turn to make a decision to make a change.

Know who you are. If you, in good conscience, cannot remain in an employment situation, do not allow believing yourself to be indispensable hinder you from walking in deference to God’s higher standard. There are times to remain as light in the darkness. There are other times you are to have nothing to do with the darkness. To the degree you know who you are and can accurately assess your current state of vulnerability or strength of character, God will direct your steps taken in agreement with His Word.

Pick your battles. Some things are worth fighting for. Many are not. When indispensable starts rhyming with adversarial and territorial, there is a wrong temper of mind afoot. Sheathing your sword and walking out of the arena may be the healthiest, wisest move you will make toward learning the lesson of becoming dispensable.

Recognize you are always leading and Who is leading you. A little honest evaluation can go a long way. You have one life to live. If leading with your life – being true, genuine, authentic, real, and growing in Christlikeness (as I define leading with your life) – is important to you, it is equally as important to recognize you are leading with your life when you are least aware of it. Others are observing. If your awareness is focused on and committed to Who is leading you, your life example will follow.

Allow God to make and keep you flexible. Christ-followers soon find out that He is the indispensable God who delights in dispensing with our old and making all things new. (II Corinthians 5:17) That is the beginning of leading with your life. As we have seen above, beginnings have endings; the old has gone and new things have come, within and without. The indispensable gives way to dispensable.

Welcome to new beginnings.

Here to help you with living life forward – available and dispensable to the One who is leading you…

~ Nancy